It's wrong to free bomber - Clinton

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has piled more pressure on the Scottish Government over apparent plans to free the Lockerbie bomber by issuing a fresh call to keep him locked up.

Mrs Clinton said it was "absolutely wrong" to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, adding: "We are still encouraging the Scottish authorities not to do so and we hope that they will not."

Megrahi - who has terminal prostate cancer - successfully dropped his appeal against conviction amid mounting speculation he could be moved to Libya within days on compassionate grounds.

Mrs Clinton has already called the Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill to say Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland.

After the bomber's appeal hearing, she told US reporters: "I just think it is absolutely wrong to release someone who has been imprisoned based on the evidence about his involvement in such a horrendous crime."

Defence QC Margaret Scott said the case met the guidelines for compassionate release and "serious" health complications were "certain to arrive" in the very near future for Megrahi, who was now very weak and in distress with severe pain.

The successful bid to drop the second appeal against conviction removes one potential obstacle to the return of Megrahi - who was convicted in 2001 of the 1988 airliner bombing which killed 270. Mr MacAskill cannot agree to return him to Libya under a prisoner transfer treaty if any legal proceedings are outstanding.

The ruling removes some red tape although a Crown appeal against Megrahi's sentence is still outstanding. Appeal judge Lord Hamilton said it was of the "utmost importance" Scotland's top law officer, Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini, made an early decision on whether she intended to insist on the appeal.

Megrahi was convicted of mass murder for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in January 2001, killing all 259 people on board and 11 people in the Scottish town.